JK Rowling scores win after arrest dare

Her sights on transgender men and women might have divided fans, but JK Rowling appears to be far more popular than ever on social media, successful 1000’s more followers in spite of her most current controversy.

The Harry Potter writer has obtained more than 62,000 followers in two days, immediately after speculation that she could be arrested below Scotland’s Hate Crime and Community Get Act, which arrived into result on Monday.

The English novelist has lived in Edinburgh due to the fact the 1990s, and Siobhian Brown, Scotland’s minister for victims and group protection, proposed Rowling could be investigated there for deliberately referring to another person by the mistaken pronouns.

Rowling has been branded transphobic by some in the latest yrs because of to her public remarks on gender identity. The 58-yr-outdated has also been accused of conflating transgender men and women with sexual predators and purposefully misgendering general public figures.

“It could be noted and it could be investigated. Regardless of whether or not the police would believe it was prison is up to Law enforcement Scotland for that,” Brown advised the Day by day Telegraph.

In reaction to Brown’s opinions, Rowling “dared” Scottish police to arrest her, hitting out at the new legislation on social media.

“In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have positioned increased value on the inner thoughts of guys doing their notion of femaleness, even so misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the legal rights and freedoms of precise ladies and ladies,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“The new laws is wide open to abuse by activists who would like to silence people of us talking out about the potential risks of reducing women’s and girls’ single-sexual intercourse areas, the nonsense manufactured of crime facts if violent and sexual assaults dedicated by gentlemen are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of permitting males to compete in woman athletics, the injustice of women’s work opportunities, [honors] and opportunities getting taken by trans-discovered men, and the actuality and immutability of organic sexual intercourse.”

Though Police Scotland verified it will not be investigating Rowling beneath the Dislike Crime and Community Get Act, the furore against her led to an outpouring of support from celebs, this kind of as Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, previous Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and conservative commentator Megan Kelly.

The arrest rumors have also boosted Rowling’s on line existence. According to social media analytics site Social Blade, Rowling has obtained much more than 62,000 X followers because Tuesday, having her subscriber rely to 14,104,156.

Rowling was initially accused of transphobia in 2018, immediately after she liked a tweet that dubbed trans girls as “males in dresses.” The writer claimed that she clicked on the put up by miscalculation, but was later on criticized for following self-explained “transphobe” and YouTuber Magdalen Berns on Twitter.

Her defense of researcher Maya Forstater, who was fired from her task after making anti-trans statements, sparked backlash from the LGBTQ local community in 2019, as did her remarks about an posting referring to “folks who menstruate.”

“‘People who menstruate.’ I am absolutely sure there applied to be a phrase for those people persons,” Rowling wrote on social media. “A person support me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

The inclusive phrase “folks who menstruate” encompasses trans men, non-binary and intersex men and women.

Although Rowling has always denied that she is “transphobic,” the backlash led the solid of the Harry Potter flicks to distance on their own from the creator, with Rowling left out of the 20th-anniversary reunion unique in 2022.

Her remarks also sparked a boycott of the online video sport Hogwarts Legacy, whilst Warner Bros. Online games stated Rowling was “not immediately associated” in the output.